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Behind the Cover Story: Tara Parker-Pope on Weight Loss

Tara Parker-Pope is the creator and writer of Well, a daily health blog and weekly column for The New York Times. She wrote this week’s cover article, “The Fat Trap.”

Q.

You write that the human body continues to fight against weight loss long after dieting has stopped. How did you first become acquainted with this research?

A.

Of all the issues I have written about during my past 12 years as a health writer, I think the topic of weight consistently generates the most interest among readers. Last summer I was working on a story about food cravings and how our own biology can influence our ability to resist tempting foods, and I began talking to Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, an obesity researcher at Columbia. We spent a long time on the phone discussing the research that shows a biological and metabolic backlash triggered by weight loss. Suddenly, so many of my own struggles with dieting made sense, and I wanted to learn more about the topic.

Q.

A lot of journalism around the topic of obesity focuses on fat or carbohydrates or some component part of the problem. How does reframing it in this larger way change the conversation?

A.

I think most of the time we talk about weight, the focus is on what the individual is eating or not eating. I think the more important discussion is about how biology and heredity influence why people get fat in the first place, the widespread variation in how individuals respond to food and why pretty much every diet plan has virtually the same failure rate. People who have been unsuccessful at permanent weight loss are very hard on themselves, and I think it’s important to tell people that while it’s certainly possible to lose weight, a number of biological factors that have nothing to do with character or willpower can make it extraordinarily difficult.

Q.

This article was both a review of new scientific studies and a personal story about your own weight, and obesity in your family. You conclude the article by saying that the research may be disheartening, but at least now you know what you are up against. Will that knowledge change your behavior in any way?

A.

When I started this story, I didn’t intend to write about my own struggles with weight. It’s a difficult topic, but after my editor encouraged me to disclose my personal stake in the discussion, I realized it was the right way to go. At first it is depressing to learn that our bodies are fighting against us, but the more I learned about the science, the more I understood my own experiences. I get so tired of people who say, ‘‘It’s simple, just eat less and move more.” It may be technically true, but it’s not simple, and the point is that some people need to eat a lot less and move a lot more than most people just to maintain a normal weight. Mostly I’m going to keep doing what i already do, exercising and eating well, but I’m also going to stop being so hard on myself. That’s a big step for me. Hope springs eternal, and I really do believe that I will one day be able lose the weight and keep it off. I’m going to try to find ways to increase the amount and intensity of exercise in my day, and as much as I hate it, I’m going to try (again) to keep a food diary. I’ve also realized that too often I let work interfere with my exercise time, and I really am going to try to put my health and exercise ahead of work for the first time in my life. But don’t tell my bosses at The New York Times.

Q.

Were you at all worried that by writing a high-profile article about this research you would discourage people who are unhealthily overweight from trying to lose weight?

A.

I was really worried that the story would be discouraging to people, but I have been so pleased by the hundreds of e-mails and comments sent by readers. So many readers said to me, “Finally, my life made sense….” and “Now that I understand what’s happening, I’m really encouraged to try again…” One reader wrote that she found the article to be “sobering, challenging, and comforting all at the same time.” We don’t do dieters any favors by telling them that it’s easy and simple. I think telling people the truth about weight loss leaves them far better equipped to tackle the problem.

Q.

A fascinating and disturbing part of this article is the section where you detail the extremely regimented lives of a few formerly obese people who have managed to keep off the weight. These rare individuals, as you quote a Yale scholar saying, “never don’t think about their weight.” A Slate article on your piece argues that the mentality of these people “resembles the symptoms of an eating disorder.” They suggested that our fat problem is not obesity but that we encourage people to adopt an eating-disorder mentality to fight obesity. How would you respond to this?

A.

I think if a person had epilepsy and needed to adopt a very regimented diet to control that disease, nobody would accuse them of having an eating disorder. A person with high blood pressure might cut back on salt and take medication, and we don’t judge him. A person with Type 1 diabetes has to be very careful about what they eat and constantly monitor blood sugar to stay well. Again, we don’t question this behavior or call it disordered eating. But a person with obesity as a medical condition is ridiculed for gaining the weight in the first place and then they are criticized for being hypervigilant about maintaining a healthy weight. That said, I thought the Slate article made a good point, concluding “that a society that stigmatizes people for a physical attribute that they can’t change is the real fat trap we ought to be trying to escape.”

Q.

Have you had any other interesting responses to your article? What has the general tone been like?

A.

I’ve received about 300 e-mails so far, and there are more than 900 comments online with more coming in every hour. Of course there are some negative comments — many people were concerned that so much of the research used very low-calorie diets and fast weight loss. But most readers have told me they found the science reassuring and that the story reflected their own experiences. People also said incredibly kind things and thanked me for my candor about my own weight. Several doctors have written to tell me they are going to recommend the article to patients. But the best and most surprising responses I have received are from several readers who start by telling me that they don’t have a weight problem, but they now have a better understanding of the challenges overweight people face. “I don’t think I’ll look at an overweight person in the same way again,” one reader wrote ‘You made some part of the world a more compassionate place with this article.”

Bruce Grierson wrote this week’s cover story about Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist who has conducted experiments that involve manipulating environments to turn back subjects’ perceptions of their own age.Read more…